Ohio prisons largest mental-health provider in state

There are 10 times as many inmates with mental illness in Ohio prisons as there are patients in Ohio’s six psychiatric hospitals, making the state’s prisons the largest provider of mental-health services in Ohio (Source: “Ohio’s prisons hold 10 times as many mentally ill as its psychiatric hospitals do,” Columbus Dispatch, April 19, 2015). 

According to analysis by the Columbus Dispatch, 10,596 people in Ohio prisons, more than 1 in 5, have a diagnosed mental illness. And 1 in 12 has a serious and persistent condition such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

And the numbers are higher for females: 41 percent of 2,510 inmates at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville are on the mental-health caseload.

The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction spent $41.7 million on mental-health care and medications in fiscal year 2014 and is projected to spend $49 million this year. That is on top of the $22,836 annual overall cost per inmate.